This is our right. If a 17 year old is not good enough to play for us, then he will NOT be picked. Simple as that. He can either wait until he is good enough, or play for another country.

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Alaba, one of the world's best fullbacks is a Nigeria "reject" - to use the derogatory language that comes out of your camp. If we had embraced him, he probably woulda quickly become a full Super Eagle and would even more probably be your beloved SE captain right now, in whom you'd be well pleased. The lesson here: go uncompromisingly for everything that's yours. You'll win some, you'll lose some.But don't bring silly sentiment into it and end up cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I am sorry but we cant cap a 17 year old who is NOT good enough. We simply cannot do that. Was Alaba the best left back in the world when we rejected him?

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The problem is that your love and desire for quality SE players and [b]your dislike for foreign-born player[/b] dominance are in conflict. So you resolve it by moralising about the unfairness meted out to these faceless, nameless local (real?) Nigerian 'stars' who are being frozen out. Then to rationalise this conflict further you seize on a throwaway comment on a single Nigerian-born, foreign-based player and present it as representative of the norm.This is classic cognitive dissonance and how individuals deal with it.

You are a funny guy.

Like I said, you are intelligent, so I know for a fact that you know what you are doing. funny kid!

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The reality is that no player is going to wait for ever for a call up. If it doesn't come, or comes too late becos another opportunity arises, they will go wherever the opportunity presents itself.

This is actually factually incorrect. Many have waited for ever for a call up. Many waited and the call up never came and they didnt run to another country.

That said, no one is asking anyone to wait until the person is 30. We are simply not going to cap a 17 year old who is NOT good enough, at the off chance that he becomes good enough. We have team building to prioritize and trophies to win. When he becomes good enough, he will be selected ON MERIT.

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That's what happened to Alaba. He was capped at 17 by Austria after Nigeria passed him by. For you to say you are indifferent to missing out on one of the best full backs of his generation (due to Nigeria's"indifference") contradicts your avowed desire for the SE to be the best they can be.

He was capped by Austria at 17 because he was their best left back at that age.

Alaba accepted Austria AT 17 because he wanted to pay for Austria. A player decides his international career at 17 and you are wondering about where his mind is??

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I dont know, but he probably switched allegiance becos he couldn't make the Brazilian squad.Brazil has an abundance - in fact, more like an 'embarrassment' - of riches.We don't.

False.

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You and I know that it doesn't really work that way, but its a nice fairy tale to tell our children.

Actually it does. Its actually factual! There are hundreds of players in that situation right now in the world.

Danfo what stops us from capping a player as a preventive measure? We did it for Iwobi. The same year they capped Alaba we brought in Aluko, Adefemi (RIP) and Echiejile all arguably inferior players and more importantly lesser rated talents.

Can’t speak for Danfo but from what I see the priority has become capping people to tie them down at the expense of capping non-dual citizen players. There seems to be a higher criteria needed for players like Ejuke (he needs to leave the dutch league) than an Aribo.

The second issue is that we are going after players who have explicity (Billing) or implicitly made it clear they don’t want to play for us by turning invitations down. Examples include Tammy Abraham and Tomori who were not ready to discuss their intl ties when we pursued them but showed up to sit on the England bench the very first time they were called.

Damunk brought up the fledgling careers of former promising youth stars like Success and Musa Yahaya to justify this new policy but for every Success and Yahaya there’s a Ibe, an Amoo, and a Chuks Aneke.

There should be one policy for Nigerian national team recruitment and the questions asked should be the same all around

1. Is the player playing at a high level? If yes, invite

2. Is the player at a mid level but showing promise? If yes, invite

3. If in either case the player says no the first time or asks for more time, leave them be and ask them to inform the NFF when they’re ready.

Danfo what stops us from capping a player as a preventive measure? We did it for Iwobi. The same year they capped Alaba we brought in Aluko, Adefemi (RIP) and Echiejile all arguably inferior players and more importantly lesser rated talents.

Can’t speak for Danfo but from what I see the priority has become capping people to tie them down at the expense of capping non-dual citizen players. There seems to be a higher criteria needed for players like Ejuke (he needs to leave the dutch league) than an Aribo.

The second issue is that we are going after players who have explicity (Billing) or implicitly made it clear they don’t want to play for us by turning invitations down. Examples include Tammy Abraham and Tomori who were not ready to discuss their intl ties when we pursued them but showed up to sit on the England bench the very first time they were called.

Damunk brought up the fledgling careers of former promising youth stars like Success and Musa Yahaya to justify this new policy but for every Success and Yahaya there’s a Ibe, an Amoo, and a Chuks Aneke.

There should be one policy for Nigerian national team recruitment and the questions asked should be the same all around

1. Is the player playing at a high level? If yes, invite

2. Is the player at a mid level but showing promise? If yes, invite

3. If in either case the player says no the first time or asks for more time, leave them be and ask them to inform the NFF when they’re ready.

I agree with your criteria but ultimately a cap is a cap, it doesn't but them front and center of the national setup. England and Germany were willing to get Agbonlahor and Aogo for a couple of games then dipose them just to make sure they secured the option in case they came good in the future. I think we should do similar, as evidence by Iwobi...he wasn't up to much when we recruited, in fact he was set to be cut from Arsenal but months later he became a regular first teamer and England was kicking themselves for not integrating him into the setup sooner. I don't care for Pinnick very public displays of recruitment but maybe we need do to be more aggressive in that way.

In good faith, I’ve left out the first fundamental question since it’s normally a no-brainer. However, here we go:

Is the player eligible to represent us?

Bringing this up only because of Pinnick’s history of bringing American athletes to represent Nigeria in track and fields. Some of the interviews on the eligibility read like comedy skits.

We’re already seeing the same in our basketball team too. I don’t think it’ll ever get that bad in football. Hopefully.

Oh yes I agree 100%, a dual citizen is still a Nigerian to me. A naturalized one with no ties (didn't grow up or live there), I don't want to see them recruited into the team. I complained about Dinwiddie too.

There are strong rumours that Olympique Marseille have contacted his club with a 10 million euros offer for Ejuke.

That would be the best move for him of all the rumors IMO.

He needs to leave Holland for a bigger stage, then his quality will be in the proper context.

So his assist and goal record in a league that produces world class players isn't convincing enough for a Super Eagles call up?We have a player (Vice captain) who as a striker can’t score in the Saudi league and is on the bench at his club and we’ve witnessed a player that was downgraded from a now relegated LaLliga club and plays in Israel make it to an Afcon and contributed to a defeat to Madagascar!

There are strong rumours that Olympique Marseille have contacted his club with a 10 million euros offer for Ejuke.

That would be the best move for him of all the rumors IMO.

He needs to leave Holland for a bigger stage, then his quality will be in the proper context.

So his assist and goal record in a league that produces world class players isn't convincing enough for a Super Eagles call up?We have a player (Vice captain) who as a striker can’t score in the Saudi league and is on the bench at his club and we’ve witnessed a player that was downgraded from a now relegated LaLliga club and plays in Israel make it to an Afcon and contributed to a defeat to Madagascar!

bros Ejuke deserves to be in the team ahead of Musa any day.

When I talk about him producing in a better league, its more for knowing how good he is and not if he should be called up to SE. As I said I think he already deserves to be called.

There are strong rumours that Olympique Marseille have contacted his club with a 10 million euros offer for Ejuke.

That would be the best move for him of all the rumors IMO.

He needs to leave Holland for a bigger stage, then his quality will be in the proper context.

So his assist and goal record in a league that produces world class players isn't convincing enough for a Super Eagles call up?We have a player (Vice captain) who as a striker can’t score in the Saudi league and is on the bench at his club and we’ve witnessed a player that was downgraded from a now relegated LaLliga club and plays in Israel make it to an Afcon and contributed to a defeat to Madagascar!

bros Ejuke deserves to be in the team ahead of Musa any day.

When I talk about him producing in a better league, its more for knowing how good he is and not if he should be called up to SE. As I said I think he already deserves to be called.